The 3rd International Conference onStereo & Immersive Media focuses on visual and sound media renowned for their immersive features.

Stereo and immersive technologies have been widening the fields of photography and sound since the 19th century, contributing to the emergence of a progressively immersive media culture. This conference aims to bring together photography and sound research fields bridging their historical and contemporary relationship with expanded and immersive environments (e.g. panoramas, virtual reality, sound art).

The organizing committee invites scholars, researchers, artists, curators and archivists to submit paper presentations and posters addressing one of the following themes:

The International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media is seeking contributions for a special issue on Performance and VR Practice.

Virtual Reality technologies have a long and established history. As Oliver Grau recognizes in his seminal text Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (2003), “the idea of installing an observer in a hermetically closed-off image space of illusion did not make its first appearance with the technical invention of computerised virtual realities. On the contrary, VR forms part of the core of the relationship of humans to images” (Grau, 2003: 4-5). Such is our fascination with creating “illusionary spaces” (ibid.), it is understandable that artists and technologist have spent the last few decades exploring how technologies, such as VR, can enable us to extend beyond our own reality towards immersive and illusionary theatrical experiences. Since the 1980’s, when VR was first used in a performative context, beyond its application in industry, artists and scholars have continued to challenge notions of what is ‘real’ and what is ‘virtual’; they have challenged concepts of transcendence, simulation, immersion, materiality, alternate realities, hybrid or mixed realities to name but a few. The use of VR has therefore been important for opening up perspectives and for developing new performance paradigms. Yet, whilst the use of VR over the last three decades has been focused and rigorous, it has not been as widely adopted as other technological tools (such as gesture/motion-sensing systems or live video and projection mapping systems) have been. This is largely due to practical concerns and the availability of such a complex technology. However, over the last few years, VR technologies have made a reemergence, not only in terms of affordability, but because the continued advances in design and usability are making it increasingly possible for artists to access and explore its potential.

In 2017, Sony released the Play Station VR headset, enabling high quality VR technologies to be accessed at home. Google cardboard and other VR -goggles enable users to access VR content through their smartphone and 360 streaming is available on Youtube. In response to this, a greater number of performance practitioners have begun to explore how such VR technologies can be used. For instance, 2017 has a seen the premier of a number of new examples of VR performance work, some made by independent artists and others by established organisations including AoE’s Whist, Boleslavsky? and Júdoká’s Dust (supported by Rambert/V&A), Makropol & Bombina’s The Shared Individual and a new VR film by the English National Ballet, inspired by Akram Khan’s Giselle. As its use continues to increase, this special issue wishes to examine how, and in what ways, VR is continuing to have an impact on current performance works. For example, some artists are using VR technologies to reimagine existing performance work, others to offer new perspectives on performance making, and others who are exploring new relationships with their audiences.

This raises a number of interesting and timely questions relating to the impact and influence of VR technologies on creative processes and the nature of the work made – In what ways are current VR technologies helping artists to re-imagine their practice? What new work is being created and is this having an impact on professional performance practice? In what ways have current VR technologies and practices extended concepts such as, transcendence, simulation, immersion, materiality, alternate realities etc? How might the use of VR technologies open up new models and/or possibilities for collaboration between artists and technologists? What new performance environments are being created within VR and how might this change how audiences access and engage with professional performance? How can VR enable audiences to engage with performance work in new ways, both collectively and individually? What can VR offer professional performance practice that a traditional ‘live’ experience cannot? What can we learn from emerging VR practice across other sectors to inform and extend professional performance practice as a whole?

We invite full essays of between 5,000 and 8,000 words or artistic position papers of between 2,000 and 3,000 words. We would particularly welcome practice-as-research contributions that experiment with content and form, while maintaining a rigorous enquiry into their disciplinary frameworks. Contributions might consider (but are not limited to) the following topics:

• New paradigms of performance offered by VR

• Live 360 streaming

• Choreographing/directing for VR

• VR and the collective experience of performance

• Role of the audience/participant in VR performance

• Participant experience

• Notions of performance

• Constructions of narrative

• Ethics of VR Performance

• VR and theatre design

Essays should be formatted according to the Routledge journal style.

Please contact Sophy Smith at <ssmith05@dmu.ac.uk<mailto:ssmith05@dmu.ac.uk>> and/or Kerry Francksen at <kerryfk1@hotmail.co.uk<mailto:kerryfk1@hotmail.co.uk>> if you have any queries.

Guest Editors: Prof. Sophy Smith and Dr Kerry Francksen, Directors of DAPPER (Digital Arts Performance Practice – Emerging Research), De Montfort University. DAPPER is a space where people working in all areas of digital performance can come together – practitioners, technologists, academics, organisations and all those in-between – to capture, share, discuss, experiment and develop work and ideas relating to digital art and performance. It is our contention that whilst many individuals work within their own specialist area or sector, innovation occurs when we have the opportunity to collaborate and cooperate with others. Digital art performance practices are emerging as a response to a fast moving technological landscape and as artists adapt to these new paradigms it is clear that digital practices are having a profound effect on the ways in which we make and understand our work. DAPPER aims to provide a space to focus on and interrogate the range of inter/transdisciplinary approaches specifically from the perspective of artistic process and practice. DAPPER runs Knowledge Exchange and Professional Practice events. In 2017-8 these have included practice-based digital performance residencies at Waterman’s Arts Centre as part of Digital Weekender and De Montfort University, offering spaces for experimentation and dialogue for professional practitioners in open creative space, and 2 cross-sector development events, exploring the practices of narrative development in virtual environments and sharing of current practices.

The Digital in Depth:
An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Depth in Digital Media

FRIDAY 30th MAY 2014

Hosted by the Institute of Advanced Study
and the Department of Film and Television Studies
Millburn House
University of Warwick
CV4 7HS

This symposium explores the ways in which depth imagery is constructed and consumed in contemporary digital practices, and the ways in which we might interpret it. Most digital platforms’ content is consumed through flat screens and yet many of their aesthetics seem anxious to convey the illusion of depth. This curious and ubiquitous paradox is visible, for example, in digital cinema’s most recent spate of 3-D films and the institutional dimensionality of videogames’ fictional environments through which the player wanders. In computing, also, user interfaces and head-up displays demonstrate a renegotiated relationship to the image that is dependent on deep spaces made immediately accessible for spectators and users.

This symposium will investigate the different media that characterise contemporary culture and the aesthetic, cultural and political implications of their digital depth. How is this illusion of depth constructed, and to what ends? The symposium will investigate avenues through which academia might read and interpret both these images and the changing mediascape of which they are a part. It will also ask what these digital constructions of depth demonstrate about the changing culture that they help to construct.

20 minute papers might address (but are not limited to) the following areas:

Please send abstracts (max 200 words), and a brief biographical note to Dr. Owen Weetch (o.b.weetch@warwick.ac.uk) by FRIDAY 28th MARCH, 2014. Decisions will be announced in early April. For more information, please visit the symposium’s blog, which can be found at thedigitalindepth.wordpress.com, or follow us on twitter @digitalindepth.Stereoscopic 3D: A Creative Summit on Connecting With Audiences

Ravensbourne (www.rave.ac.uk) and the i3DS Society (http://tinyurl.com/crfcmbq), have great pleasure in calling for papers for the fourth annual international Creative Summit. The conference includes a research strand that will offer an opportunity for academia and industry to critically examine stereoscopic media in the field of film, television, and other
content that may inform the field.

Sergei Eisenstein believed that connecting with audiences was at the heart of filmmaking or, as he put it, understanding how to “‘throw a bridge’ across the gulf separating the spectator and the actor” (Mendiburu et al, 2012). A number of notable recent films explore how stereoscopic 3D might enhance this connection. Ang Lee’s Life of Pi explores how to use 3D to create a greater feeling of presence for the viewer; we are invited to ‘be’ Pi. In Gravity the
viewer is encouraged to experience the grandeur of space and offered an overload of technical information in order to understand the immediate and often terrifying choices facing astronauts in their not-so-everyday working lives. Television spectaculars such as the Doctor Who anniversary, and more short-form independent 3D content for Internet distribution are also contributing to our understanding of how to create the bridges Eisenstein felt
were so essential.

We therefore call for presentations from either practice-based or theoretical perspectives on the following themes, but welcome contributions that inform how the use of the third dimension assists us to connect with audiences:

* How are writers inviting audiences to become immersed in story or the mise-en-scène?

* What cinematographic techniques are being pioneered to draw us into the frame?

* Can pre-visualisation tools amplify what immersive experiences we can construct?

* Are we now developing an aesthetic that is particular to stereoscopic media?

* Does the convergence of film and gaming offer opportunities to draw the audience more effectively into augmented gaming worlds?

We will be accepting papers or presentations on the topics above that will be part of the main conference proceedings on the afternoon of the first day. Abstracts should be sent in the form of 500 word abstracts to the selection committee via lizzie.jackson@rave.ac.uk by *Monday 17th February2014.* When submitting your abstracts, please also state your name,
affiliation, and provide a one-paragraph biography.

Accepted papers/presentations will receive a conference fee waiver.

Ravensbourne and the International 3D Society Call for Papers for ‘Stereoscopic 3D: A Creative Summit’ Conference

Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th March, 2013
The British Film Institute, South Bank, London

Ravensbourne and the i3DS Society, have great pleasure in calling for papers for the third international conference on stereoscopic film and television.

On June 21 1838 the Royal Society published Charles Wheatstone’s paper on 3D Stereoscopy, Contributions to the Physiology of Vision. The eminent Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Kings College London laid out principles of stereoscopy and later invented the stereoscope. The stereoscopic technique has therefore existed for over 150 years, but what level of maturity has it reached?

The aim of the overall conference is to draw together industry and academia to debate and demonstrate what the nature of high quality stereoscopic television and film is. The conference aims to promote discussion around the development of international standards, something of high interest to industry. As researchers, however, we deepen the debate to ask, in a dedicated section of the conference…

Can 3DS be considered to have reached maturity? Who decides what creative or technical ‘maturity’ means?

What is the possibility of setting worldwide technical standards and creative guidelines for stereoscopic film, television and other related content?

It could be argued that the releasing of 2D to 3D conversions is having a degenerative effect on the maturation of the craft of stereoscopic 3DS. The need to generate revenue through ‘brand 3D’ may be altering the perception of 3DS from audience perspectives. Should we therefore now define what is and what is not ‘true’ stereoscopy?

What is next after the commodification of 3DS, for example 4K 3DS?

We will be accepting around 15 papers or presentations on the topics above, which can include investigations into stereoscopic animation or gaming if the study contributes to the conference theme. However ALL acceptable research from practitioners interested in stereoscopic 3D can have a place through the exhibition of a poster outlining your work. Attendees will also be able to contribute to a workshop, which will map research being generated in this field, worldwide.

Papers, posters, or expressions of interest in mapping 3DS Research should be sent in the form of abstracts to lizzie.jackson@rave.ac.uk by Monday 4th February 2013.

PUBLIC 47/

*** Please note the extended deadline for abstracts which is now May 1st***

The most recent revival of stereoscopic 3D (S3D) moving images, from cinema and television to video games and cell phone applications, signifies a new development in global screen cultures and media technologies. As the stereoscopic technology becomes more available and more studio productions are scheduled for release in S3D format, scholars, artists and industry professionals require a common language for discussing the aesthetics and industry of S3D that goes beyond the current largely technical terminology. Moreover, independent S3D works of art require careful examination in the context of the most recent resurgence of the medium within the mainstream mediascapes.

This special issue of PUBLIC will critically analyze the dynamics and significance of the current, past and future developments of S3D. The essays in this issue will explore the aesthetic, economic and cultural implications of using stereoscopic images in the context of contemporary art, media and technology. Interdisciplinary perspectives and artists’ projects are welcome.

The Latin for perspective is *perspicere (*to see through), seeing beyond
boundaries or beyond solidity. The Greeks attempted to evolve a system of
perspective around the 5th century B.C. as part of an interest in
illusionism and Renaissance artists took this further by developing
techniques of using the third dimension in art (Kemp, 1992). Impressionists
such as Cezanne broke these ‘rules’ by arranging objects in order of
importance rather than distance from the viewer.

Playing with the Mise-en-scene, or finding new ways to tell a story using
the third dimension, is the theme of this second international conference
on 3-D stereoscopic media (principally Film and Television). 800 industry
delegates will be attending the free two-day conference and we invite
papers and presentations from researchers who would like to share their
work in this area.

Technical, economic and cultural approaches are welcome, in particular
topics which encourage a critical analysis of the opportunities and
challenges of 3-D Television and Film. Production and audience perspectives
will also be of high interest to delegates as will ethnographic studies
which combine applied and basic/pure research, for example explorations
into a ‘glasses-free’ experience, or on children’s experiences of 3-D
stereoscopic media. We will schedule themed panels in response to the call.
Presentations should last no longer than 15 minutes. If you wish to submit
a paper/presentation, or if you wish to suggest and chair a panel, the
deadline for submissions is *Monday 5th March. *Please send a 500 word
abstract to: Lizzie Jackson, lizzie.jackson@rave.ac.uk.
<lizzie.jackson@rave.ac.uk>

The conference is supported by Screen International and draws together an
existing community of over 400 directors, producers, technicians, and
manufacturers who formed an online community of practice after last year’s
conference. ** <lizzie.jackson@rave.ac.uk>For further information:http://3dstorytelling.co.uk/